Grenade Games: The Finale

The fun minibike shredding that has gone down all week swelled into heavy boardin’ for Saturday evening’s grand finale. A super creative course had riders seeking out lines left and right under the nightfall and in front of the masses in the Whistler Village. This night contest was awesome because the course was soft instead of rock hard and the energy from the finals trickled right into the après, après fun. I heard some say the Telus Festival has been waiting for a good snowboard portion to the festival and by the sea of spectators it looks like the Grenade Games more than delivered. What do you think? Is the Grenade Games a good fit in Whistler and Telus? Light up the comment boards and tell us what you think.

Back to the shredding…the course started with a “Guldemond” drop-in into the course, which slung riders into either a sixty-foot jump or gigantic and dicey butter box option. Aside from his grumbling rants, Lukas Magoon was launching front fives straight into the vertical wall of the butter box with front fives and trying to ride out the drop. This feature claimed some wild combos as well as David Fortín. He tried sending it over the entire butter box but flailed towards the knuckle and plummeted to a brutal crash. The gurney was out, the Games were stalled, and David was retrieved after a good battering including a broken thumb and concussion. Get well Dave!

Down the course Eero Niemela, Ikka Backstrom and Danny Kass among others were tackling the twenty-foot jib tree with quick bonks and tornado spins out. One little tap and a huge drop below meant riders could whip out a fives and sevens on this thing. On the other side, the down box and down-flat-down rail saw just about every 270 combo. Kael Hill quickly became a crowd favorite with some hot feet on the jibs while generally killing it all over. The ladies were out too, Leanne Pelosi, Robin Van Gyn and Bev Vuilleumier were letting it shine with Robin taking home the “best babe award.”

Wyatt Caldwell snuck in with his signature lazy cat style and threw down some perfect sevens and jibs to sneak into third. But no one could match the force of the Frenchies Craig Beaulieu and Jesmond Dubeau who grabbed first and second, respectively. And that’s it; the weeklong stretch of riding came to a close in slush and under nightfall with Craig Beaulieu bringing home the bacon. Things weren’t officially over until at least one more fiery night in Whistler and a cold caesar to wake up to.

Champs1. Craig Beaulieu2. Jesmond Dubeau3. Wyatt Caldwell

Check out more stuff from the Games on the Monster blog here and links below